Citing an apparent violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, an election flying squad in Chennai served a letter to a publishing house banning the release of a book on the Rafale fighter jet case on Tuesday prompting widespread condemnation leading to the Election Commission to ultimately give a go-ahead to the publishers on the release, according to a report in The Hindu.
The book release, which was to be chaired by N. Ram, the Managing Director of the Hindu group, was stopped by the officials of the poll body. As many as 148 copies of the book were seized from the author S Vijayan's office, according to ANI.
The book titled "Nattai Ulukkum Rafale Bera Uzhaal" (the Rafale scam that is rocking the country) and written by social activist S Vijayan has been printed by Tamil publishing house Bharathi Puttakalayam, based in Teynampet, Chennai, and was scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
Talking to ANI, PK Rajan, the editor of Bharathi publications said: "We have not done any investigative journalism. The writer has merely aggregated the information available online, in a concise manner."
He said that the reason he was denied the permission is that "they were afraid the truth will be out in open" and the people of Tamil Nadu would get to know the "truth".
However, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, in a tweet, clarified that neither the Election Commission (EC) nor the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office had given any instructions for the seizure of the book.
"Clarification from CEO TN Regarding the seizure of books neither the ECI nor the CEO office had given any instructions. I have directed DEO, Chennai to look into it and give his report immediately," he said.
The members of the flying squad involved in the raid and halting of the book release have been relieved from duty and have also been given a show cause notice, the report in The Hindu said, quoting sources.
